“We can not win this war by killing them,” Marie Harf said on MSNBC of ISIS in what is now widely-agreed to have been a stunningly stupid remark.

“War is one of the few things in life we can reliably kill our way out of,” Sultan Knish reminds. “The United States has had a great track record of killing our way out of wars. We killed our way out of WW1. We killed our way out of WW2. The problem began when we stopped trying to kill our way out of wars and started trying to hug our way out of wars instead…Because the solution to war is so obvious that no progressive could possibly think of it.”

Certainly not the low-information Democrat progressives of our overpaid and blundering federal government.

Gary Zaboly’s good drawing based on historical evidence is a good intro to today.

It’s traditional in these parts to read this aloud today, the 2nd of March, which is Texas Independence Day. Even big-Lefty Gov. Ann Richards did it when she was in office.

Commandancy of the Alamo

Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the World– Fellow
Citizens and Compatriots–

I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna–I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man–The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken–I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls–I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch–The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country–Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis, Lt. Col. comdt.

After 179 years you can still “hear” some of the old Alamo fight in this Deguello bugle call of No Quarter. The dictator’s troops played it before their final, successful dawn assault on March 6, 1836.

A blogger friend whose blog is, coincidentally, on Blogger recently got an email from Blogger boss Google warning of a change in policy as of March 23. The email read, in part:

“In the coming weeks, we’ll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We’ll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.”

Well, I’d say female nudity is uplifting (in more ways than one) whatever the context about 99 percent of the time. Anyhow, Google backed down a few days later, as reported by Drudge and others, citing “a ton of feedback” complaints.

However, Google now requires: “If your blog contains adult content, please mark it as ‘adult’ in your Blogger settings. We may also mark blogs with adult content where the owners have not.”

The funny thing about all this is that you can use Google to look up all the images of nude women and men (cheesecake, soft-porn, even hard-core porn of people f**king) you can stand. If you can do that, why should Google attempt to muzzle blogs that might use the images? Or make them add “adult” tags? Their having procured (ha!) the images from Google in the first place?

Mrs. Charm and I were complaining today about how cold this winter has been in Central Texas and how it seems to be continuing with more forecast this week. It could be worse, as this photo off Massachusetts shows:

“The waves captured by photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh are so thick with ice that they’ve drawn comparisons to ‘Slurpees’ and other frozen beverages, but the texture and shape of the wave also suggest a giant, grey tongue, licking the shores of Nantucket.

“Here’s what the photographer had to say about his images: ‘When I pulled up to the beach I could see the horizon just look strange. When I got to the top off the dunes I saw that beginning about 300 yards away from the shoreline the ocean was starting to freeze.

“‘The high temp that day was around 19 degrees. The wind was howling from the southwest which would typically make rough or choppy conditions not so good for surfing, but since the surface of the sea was frozen slush the wind did not change the shape. What resulted was perfect, dreamy, slush waves. Most waves were around 2 feet with some larger sets slushing through around 3 foot or waist high. What an experience to be absolutely freezing on the beach watching these roll in while I mind-surfed them! I wonder if a shaper can make me a special designed slurfboard?

“‘The next day I drove up to see if they melted but beginning that same 300 yards away from shore the water had frozen solid and there were no waves at all. I’ve been asking all the fishermen and surfers I know if they have ever seen such a thing and they have all reported that this is a first, a result of it being the coldest winter we’ve had in 81 years. I guess the people I asked weren’t old enough to remember a colder winter than this!”

Still worried about your carbon footprint and the government’s illusory global warming?

I’ve been telling Mr. Boy to consider becoming an electrician. He could take the college money, buy all his tools new and a new truck. Then, with plenty left-over for most of the price of a nice house in a high-demand neighborhood, he could get out there and make big bucks from the well-educated who are fearful of electricity.

But I’m wrong. Dead wrong. What he needs to do is to become a fed. That’s right a federal employee. Because that is where the big bucks really are, folks, up to twice six figures a year. Likely for doing no more than surfing porn on the Net half the day. And even when a fed is caught violating the law, she still gets a fat bonus.

“And there was I thinking that one of the key facets of conservatism is that it is a practical and honest creed. It’s not about airy-fairy theories about what might work if only we closed our eyes tight enough and said ‘I believe in Tinkerbell.’ It’s about what actually does work in the real world, as demonstrated by hard evidence.

“…see also: the ban on smoking in public places, introduced to prevent the dangers of ‘second-hand smoking’ which, all serious studies show are non-existent…But hey, the government is going to go ahead with it any way.”